First, a few politically redolent items, followed by my own recommendation for how the nations and peopls of the world might get out of the current Debt Crisis and restart the world economy, in a single shot.
=== First some Misc Political Items ===
Said an alert fan: "FYI. Drudge just linked to a scare piece on an Alex Jones site about the coming dissolution of America in 2017, and they used a still from The Postman movie to illustrate the story. It was a hard LOL for me, and thought you'd all like to know."
Indeed, while Drudge & Jones are major apologists for oligarchy, Roberts is actually less predictable, sometimes interesting, and aims a zinger on-target, toward the end.: "America’s collapse occurred when government ceased to represent the people and became the instrument of a private oligarchy. Decisions were made in behalf of short-term profits for the few at the expense of unmanageable liabilities for the many."
Of course, the destruction of the American middle class should be the biggest political issue of our time. Hence, read this article! Right now, the blame could very plausibly be heaped upon the Neoconservative Movement, whose misrule so horrifically harmed not only the United States, but the older mantle of responsible conservatism, which it hijacked. President Obama could "get all populist on their asses" over this devastating example of retro-social-engineering. But instead he has spent 18 months trying to reason with the unreasonable and to reach out to the rabid.
He now has very little time left before he winds up owning the decline. It is time to listen to Rahm Emmanuel. Or, at least, appoint a special prosecutor over the corruption at the Minerals Management Service... and let the SP’s trail take him where it will.
In the category of "who else do you know who has been saying all this, as long as I have been?" "A U.S. audit has found that the Pentagon cannot account for over 95 percent of $9.1 billion in Iraq reconstruction money, spotlighting that there is little to show for the massive funds pumped into their cash-strapped, war-ravaged nation."
Continues the report: "The $8.7 billion in question was Iraqi money managed by the Pentagon, not part of the $53 billion that Congress has allocated for rebuilding. It's cash that Iraq, which relies on volatile oil revenues to fuel its spending, can ill afford to lose.... Complaints surfaced from the start of the war in 2003, when soldiers failed to secure banks, armories and other facilities against looters. Since then the allegations have only multiplied, including investigations of fraud, awarding of contracts without the required government bidding process and allowing contractors to charge exorbitant fees with little oversight, or oversight that came too late." Oh, BTW... 100% of the funds in question went missing during the Bushite Administration. And yes, I have said all this since 2004.
Of course, you all could join the Coffee Party Movement. Yes, it is based on opposition to the rancorously partisan "Tea Party" movement. But not so much over left-right issues as red-blue temperaments and basic approaches to life. (There are conservatives and fiscal responsibility types etc in the Coffee Party movement; as I said, it is about personality.) No, the thing being opposed is the rancor itself. The culture war that is being foisted on America as a way to weaken us. "Our Vision: Reason, truth & civility in public affairs; A gov't of public servants accountable to the People; A People committed to civic virtue, compassion & the common good."
http://nakedcapitalism.com/ See an interesting extrapolation about hidden wealth in offshore tax havens... and the long-term implications for us all.
As someone who has experienced the most frigid extremes of the cold war between the US and Soviet Union, Admiral Bill Owens has made it his life's mission to try to prevent a similar chill freezing the emerging relationship between Beijing and Washington. (I have met Owens - a singluarly impressive member of the officer corps. And all I can say, again, is thank God for the Navy.)
According to the Wall Street Journal, consumer tracking "has grown both far more pervasive and far more intrusive than is realized by all but a handful of people in the vanguard of the industry." Tracking technology "beacons" are placed on a computer when you visit a website, gathering information on your online activity, your profile and preferences…this info is bought and sold on stock market-like exchanges…
... and finally...
== A Way Out of the World Financial Mess? ==
My own debt spiral exit strategy is the simplest, most profound, easily and by far the most effective... and thus unlikely to be tried, since it would sharply reduce the power of the most powerful. It would not entail any confiscation, higher taxes or any substantial new socialism or regulation. In fact, almost no changes in the actual structure of capitalism.
It is radical economic transparency. A requirement, negotiated into a treaty that encompasses the world, that anyone who owns anything larger than a small farm or small shop must openly declare and avow what it is that they own, and how they came to own it.
Further -- no property may be held by any set of holding companies more than two layers deep, before getting to actual human people, who admit and assert and avow that ownership.
Note that there is nothing whatsoever socialistic, confiscatory or "leveling" about this proposal. In theory, all I am asking for is the situation that already prevails! Look into it. Exactly this level of traceable ownership is the basis for most of our market systems. In other words... if it ain’t true, right now, then it oughta be.
No property owned by the rich or mighty or by corporations... or by anybody at all... should be any more or less protected by the law, just because nobody knows who (or what) owns it. The law is the law and tax policy, and every other property-related concern, would be better thrashed out in the open, by adult citizens via the open political processes that are supposed to control such things. Those who use political means to fight for lower taxes on the rich continue to be welcome to do so; indeed, the propaganda machine agitating for continued low rates is in full swing and very effective. But that is an entirely different matter from concealing the ownership path itself. There are no bases for justifying that, political, moral or philosophical.
So, what would happen to the secret wealth that’s revealed? Much of it was derived from tax avoidance -- and for that huge reservoir, a generous partial amnesty should ease the transition and cleanse a lot of consciences... and/or return maybe half of the wealth that was ripped out of developing nations by their own corrupt elites. (Africa, alone, would probably see a doubling of public assets, from the return of loot stolen by the likes of Mobutu Sese Seko.)
And the problem with making these people live by the same rules that apply to us is...?
As for the rest of the newly revealed wealth? I have seen estimates that a substantial fraction of it would be simply abandoned, rather than admit such connections to real people. Ill-gotten gains, druglord stashes, the holdings of local debt-lords who have no legitimate provenance for the estates they make peasants slave-upon. All would be fair game for deficit-ridden societies -- erasing much of the world’s official debt, without any confiscation or increased taxation of legally-gained assets.
Ponder that last sentence again. What at first seems a state power grab and tax rape is not anything of the sort. Not inherently, at least. Not if put into effect honorably, by people who (with open eyes) genuinely want vibrant entrepreneurial markets to continue to work, ever-better. That want, if sincere and pervasive, should limit the "victims" of transparency to those who flee from some assets, abandoning them because they never did (or never should have) own them.
In fact, taxes on legal assets could probably go down, steeply, after such a move. Think about that. Especially if some of the abandoned property is then vested in the tenant farmers who actually till the soil, following the pro-market, pro-entrepreneurial methods of Hernando de Soto... methods that have vested property in the poor farmers of Peru, giving them a giant leg up toward middle-class, land-owning independence. This is a story that proves my point. That lawful, open ownership is a goal that should inspire libertarians and honorable conservatives, easily as much as any liberal.
In addition, radical transparency would include full disclosure of many areas of economic life that are now shrouded. Ask economists. They will tell you that open information flows are the life-blood of markets, both in theory and in practice. Capitalism falls apart when shrouded fogs - either of secrecy or pragmatic obscurity and opacity - thwart the ability of a billion market participants to make intelligent choices, based upon all pertinent data. Note, also, that obscurity in order to mask cheating is precisely the kind of oligarchic meddling that Adam Smith cursed, in The Wealth of Nations, when he first shed light on the fundamental principles of market capitalism.
Of course you would expect such a proposal from the author of the Transparent Society. But in fact, I would allow considerable exceptions to Radical Transparency -- including professional confidentiality, basic intellectual property, tactical state security secrets, and temporary caching of business strategies and product development. This is not about purist radicalism, but pragmatically seeking equilibria that keep our civilization healthy. And free.
Entirely at right angles to the hoary and stupid and discredited so-called "left-vs-right political axis," this is the reform most likely to rescue and re-invigorate capitalism. It is also the one way that the debts can be paid off -- by criminals, tax cheats, and scoundrels.
=== ADDENDUM ABOUT SCIENCE ===
Of course there is really only one way out of our current economic troubles. Growth. And given that it has been proved, time and again, that technology and science were responsible for 50% + of all growth since World War II, is it any wonder that the solution is obvious? Especially after the Bushite War on Science reversed the tech-driven growth of the 1990s?
More tech entrepreneurship. Steps to encourage science education and innovation.
More science.